Hi friend! How are you? Hope you are well and surviving the cold weather. For those of you not in a cold weather climate...well, I have nothing more to say to you. Today was the umpteenth (very scientific) time I was caught in the rain sans umbrella, rain pelting me in the face, and no hood/stocking hat. Of course you know that means my frizz crown was out of control, inevitably I wear my glasses every time it rains so I was blindly walking through the building until I got to my class, and I was running late so I was stomping and sweating trying to get there on time. I guess that explains how I see people walking around with no coat on. Literally I'll see these little girls (okay, they're in university but still, pocket people compared to me) prancing about with no coat on a really windy, chilly day and wonder how they are surviving. Turns out, when you walk everywhere you don't feel the cold as much as when you only sprint from your home to your frozen car and sit in that while you drive to work and then sprint into the warm building. I'm consistently wrong in gauging the appropriate garment level. One sweater too many and I'm overheating. No scarf and I think my extremities will freeze off. So complicated.
Okay, since we last spoke, I've had all number of weird things happen. All on the same day. Thursday the 17th started off like any other day. I woke up groggy, shuffled to the kitchen in my sweat pants and stuffed my face with a huge bowl of cereal (come on, who really follows those recommended serving sizes on the box? One cup, that will last me 10 min. and then I'll be searching for bagels). We were told not to shower that day between 10-4 because some maintenance guys were coming to take our shower heads away and delime them...or something? Well, as you all know, that was no problem for me as I am adverse to the hassle of showering anyway, so - nice excuse right? Wrong. From here the debacle stems. So sure enough the guys come and remove said shower head. The first guy tried to convey some type of information, but I couldn't understand a word coming out of his mouth. His voice was completely hoarse, which I'm pretty sure was the result of some sort of illness (cancer), so I felt terrible giving him a clueless look after already asking him to repeat himself twice. He realized I was never going to get it, so he gave me a shrug and moved along. Uh, why can I not get this accent?! Most of my friends here are also foreign, so I am actually not constantly exposed to Scots...that's not an excuse, but it's my excuse I guess. Best I've got.
So, I proceed to sit in my pajamas reading for my Thursday evening class and wait for them to bring my shower head back. It's now around 11:30 or noon, they said a couple of hours. Okay, so I go to the kitchen to make some soup. Of course the potato soup can explodes all over me. I mean, that stuff shot out of there like a geyser and conveniently landed on my sweatshirt, face, and hair. Uhhhh. Okay, well, still no shower head, so I guess I'll just have to wipe myself off and carry on with the day until they get back. Around 3:00, still no maintenance guys, so I go to the kitchen to have a snack and sulk. Mind you, I have class at 4:00. Not looking promising at this point. So all of a sudden, my roommate Dani and I hear them return and hooray, my shower head is back. I literally make eye contact with them as they're outside the kitchen door, so they know I'm there, I know they've come and replaced my shower head, all is good, all is right. Wrong. I leave the kitchen (they'd gone by this point) only to discover that my bedroom door is locked. The maintenance guys had locked it behind them and my room key, my cell phone, and my non-potato stained, non-sweat material clothing and actual shoes versus slippers were locked in that room. AHHHH. Okay, so thank goodness my roommate was home and let me call security from her room. I get the guy on the phone, and his response was literally, "oh, well, we have a situation going on here and I can't send anybody. Sorry." What? Are you kidding me? What is the point in having security if I can't call and have someone "respond" to my lack of security. I tried to be polite as possible, but when he launched into a lecture on how I'm supposed to take my key with me even when I'm just going to the kitchen and lock my door EVERY TIME....I was done. It was 20 min. until my class started by now and I had no time for his drivel. He would have someone come at 4:00...right when my class was starting...he said when I cut him off and demanded to know when their "incident there" would be over. While this mind-numbing conversation was going on, my roommate had done the genius move of running down to see whether the maintenance guys were still here, and sure enough - she found them!! So 15 min. out I got into my room, changed out of the potato clothes, threw on a hat, called security to let them know not to come (I will never get service again), and ran to my class. The first thing my professor smirks and says to me when he's checking who's there - "oh, I didn't recognize you with a hat." I didn't think he'd find it humorous that my hair contained dried potato chunks, so I just gave him a "oh yeah, sorry" while everyone laughed.
So two hours later, I walk into the apartment and go straight to the kitchen to make dinner. I find my two female roommates sitting there looking warily between the bottom of the fridge and the bottom of the oven. New arrival - we had a mouse. Sure enough, Ratatouille appeared next to the washing machine and my Singaporean roommate screamed and jumped on the couch. So I helped move the ENORMOUS amounts of food being stored on our counters (vegetables, fruit, bread, eggs, etc.) to the various empty cupboards higher up so we could make our kitchen less attractive as a mouse paradise. Predictably, that night I had also scheduled a tutorial session with one of the Chinese girls who lives next door. She needed a native English speaker to go through her essay and point out grammatical errors, better phrasing, etc. So periodically throughout the two hours I would have to bang on the table to scare the mouse back under the stove or washing machine. Poor thing (her, not the mouse) - she jumped every time and was really freaked out by the mouse...sure enough the next day she sent me an email that the mouse had moved into her bedroom.
At the end of that eventful day, I got to bed at 12:30 and had to get up 4 hours later to catch my 5:30 train. I traveled up to Aberdeen for a mini-conference on land use and climate change presented by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. They were discussing their report on the implications of the Land Use Strategy under the Climate Change Act of 2009. Very interesting, met a lot of cool people doing cool things - makes me wish I had studied science before I went to law school. For any of you considering a career change into the climate change field, it would behoove you to know about biology. Anyway, quite on par with how dumb I am sometimes with traveling, I had a vague idea that the James Hutton Institute where it was being held was out to the west of town. The website said to take the #16 bus. Okay, but infuriatingly, my research stopped there, which I didn't realize I needed to be concerned about until I arrived at the train station. I didn't know where the #16 stopped, how long it took, where I was supposed to get off....so of course I did my classic ask people for help. I chose more carefully this time (reference the service van guy disaster from Sept.), and a very nice professional directed me to the main street where I would likely find the bus stop. The street was lined with bus stops, so after searching the map, I found the cross streets and the #16. Once I was on the bus and we'd gone a fair distance, I started to get nervous that I was going to miss the stop. So once I saw a street sign with the name of the stop, a church with the name of the stop, I knew I had to ask the bus driver. There were only three people on the bus at this point, and the girl in polka dot pajama pants got off at the next stop. Before we started off again, I inquired whether the driver knew where to get off for the James Hutton Institute. He literally put the bus in idle and got out from behind the wheel to confer with the lone old guy on the bus. *So nice! Scottish people on the whole are so amazingly nice and generous - one time I asked directions when I got off the train in a small town and the husband and wife even offered to give me a ride!* Turns out the situation was being complicated by the fact that the institute had changed names and neither of them knew it as JH but rather as the Macauley land institute. Once we got that cleared up the bus driver said, "oh, I bet that lass with the spotted pants was headed there." (ha! lass. spotted pants. so cute!) I kind of laughed and said, "oh, right, very student of her - wearing her pajamas to class." He gave me a strange look - "uh no, it's actually a thing. Didn't you notice weird outfits around town?" Apparently I have even less fashion sense than we all thought. It didn't even occur to me that the mismatched, wild colors and patterns outfits were any different from the uber-fashionable outfits I'm surrounded by and not attempting to mirror on a daily basis. It was a nationwide charity awareness thing, so that would explain the tartan leggings, knit sweater circa 1983, and tie-dyed scarf affixed to the purse of this girl at the land use conference who I overheard telling her boyfriend that she just had to stay until after lunch and then she could leave....... Which is probably best since I can't really think that anybody was going to take her seriously in that outfit. I'm all for charity, but really? Being young and female already stacks the odds against you that none of the old white hairs will discourse with you about land use until you show them you know what you're talking about. I don't think I made it clear either - she didn't have a skirt over the leggings. Quite possibly the least professional thing you could wear to a suit and tie conference.
So no limbs lost or catastrophic events. Just wildly unfortunate mishaps that seem to compound on each other making me panicked, lost, sweating, or all of the above. Thanks for reading! I have to get going on essays....note the procrastination involved in writing this email :)
Hope you are well, take care, and I'll write again soon!
Cheers,
Beth
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Flames Galore
Hi friend! How are you? I hope you are well! I'm sorry it's been awhile since I've written. Starting to get into the busy part of the semester with final essays, etc., so that's why I've been MIA.
Okay, chronologically speaking - the end of October/beginning of November has been interesting.
One day my flatmate walked in and asked if I was going to see the Olympic Torch. What? The Olympic Torch is in Edinburgh? The Olympic Games are over 6 months away? Not only was it here, they had set up this gigantic Coca Cola bus in the middle of our student union square with a little tent where you could actually hold the torch and get your picture taken with it. Upon rounding the corner to the square though, we literally almost bumped into the last person in what was an interminable line. It was ridiculously long - thus, there was no chance I was going to wait. But we did get some good pictures of the scene. Unfortunately, none are of people taking pictures with the torch, which of course turned into - what's the silliest pose I can do with this huge gold thing? If you want to see them, go to my Picasa album! https://picasaweb.google.com/100003400901805538894/OlympicTorchHalloweenAndDiwali?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIKslci5o9eGXg&feat=directlink
This unexpected visitor was soon followed by the Diwali celebration I got to attend with my flatmate. It's the Hindi "festival of lights" so they had Indian food (I was in heaven until the sheer quantity I had consumed started to sink in), traditional dancing (which I sucked at), and saris everywhere - they were so beautiful! I even got my hand henna painted!!!
Halloween was next, which turns out is incredibly popular over here. I thought maybe they didn't celebrate it, like it was only an American thing. Nope, dead wrong. They do wear significantly scarier costumes though, so that was different. The default was putting black circles under their eyes and playing a plain-clothes zombie (lazy) or drawing red lines from the corners of their mouths as vampires. Mine was always going to be a hit or miss if people had not seen the movie Dodgeball, which upon studying its box office results here in the UK I realized might be very few people as opposed to the US, but I got a few positive responses aside from the Americans I met up with. Mostly I was just gawked at as some crazy person with bushman eyebrows and ugly circus red lipstick by people on the bus. Eh, you win some, you lose some.
The real Halloween celebration in Edinburgh is actually ON the 31st of October though, which this year happened to be on a Monday night. The pagan tradition of celebrating harvest leads into this end of summer celebration, called Samhuinn, where they have a parade and this group called Beltane Fire Society literally has flame throwers, drum corps, and street theatre. Of course it was a torrential downpour right at 9:00 when the parade started, so my flatmates and I didn't go out until 10:00. We caught the end of the drumming and saw some terrifyingly scary red-painted demonic people, the other drum performers, who had finished and were headed to the bar. I couldn't believe how many people were out that Monday night though and appeared to be in it for the long haul - it was raining and I'd already exhausted my costume on Saturday, so it never occurred to me people would actually go out on Monday as well. Clearly I was mistaken. Very cool annual tradition to catch though.
Last Saturday was Bonfire Night. This annual celebration on Nov. 5th, where there are fireworks set off all around the UK, is in honor of Guy Fawkes. He was part of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 due to continuing intolerance for Catholicism under the British monarch. When you are plotting with 12 other people, however, make sure nobody rats you out by sending a letter directly to whom you are trying to blow up. Apparently, someone in the plot folded like a lawn chair and notified a member of the House of Lords that Nov. 5th was the day. Not only did Guy never get a chance to ignite the 36 barrels of gunpowder stored in the basement of Westminster, but the guards stormed in while he was down there, captured, tortured, and killed him for treason. Talk about a plan gone wrong. So on that Nov. 5th night in 1605, people around Britain lit bonfires to celebrate the safety of the King and the tradition continues today. We got to see the huge amount of fireworks set off in the soccer stadium from Holyrood Park, which sits at the base of the extinct volcano Arthur's Seat where people hike up with torches or flashlights and set off fireworks as well. That was cool to see from the ground - I'd be willing to put money on it that it was F.REE.ZING up there!
I hope you are doing great! It's quite unseasonably warm for Scotland, apparently, so we'll see how cold it starts to get here in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks for reading and take care!
Cheers,
Beth
Okay, chronologically speaking - the end of October/beginning of November has been interesting.
One day my flatmate walked in and asked if I was going to see the Olympic Torch. What? The Olympic Torch is in Edinburgh? The Olympic Games are over 6 months away? Not only was it here, they had set up this gigantic Coca Cola bus in the middle of our student union square with a little tent where you could actually hold the torch and get your picture taken with it. Upon rounding the corner to the square though, we literally almost bumped into the last person in what was an interminable line. It was ridiculously long - thus, there was no chance I was going to wait. But we did get some good pictures of the scene. Unfortunately, none are of people taking pictures with the torch, which of course turned into - what's the silliest pose I can do with this huge gold thing? If you want to see them, go to my Picasa album! https://picasaweb.google.com/100003400901805538894/OlympicTorchHalloweenAndDiwali?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIKslci5o9eGXg&feat=directlink
This unexpected visitor was soon followed by the Diwali celebration I got to attend with my flatmate. It's the Hindi "festival of lights" so they had Indian food (I was in heaven until the sheer quantity I had consumed started to sink in), traditional dancing (which I sucked at), and saris everywhere - they were so beautiful! I even got my hand henna painted!!!
Halloween was next, which turns out is incredibly popular over here. I thought maybe they didn't celebrate it, like it was only an American thing. Nope, dead wrong. They do wear significantly scarier costumes though, so that was different. The default was putting black circles under their eyes and playing a plain-clothes zombie (lazy) or drawing red lines from the corners of their mouths as vampires. Mine was always going to be a hit or miss if people had not seen the movie Dodgeball, which upon studying its box office results here in the UK I realized might be very few people as opposed to the US, but I got a few positive responses aside from the Americans I met up with. Mostly I was just gawked at as some crazy person with bushman eyebrows and ugly circus red lipstick by people on the bus. Eh, you win some, you lose some.
The real Halloween celebration in Edinburgh is actually ON the 31st of October though, which this year happened to be on a Monday night. The pagan tradition of celebrating harvest leads into this end of summer celebration, called Samhuinn, where they have a parade and this group called Beltane Fire Society literally has flame throwers, drum corps, and street theatre. Of course it was a torrential downpour right at 9:00 when the parade started, so my flatmates and I didn't go out until 10:00. We caught the end of the drumming and saw some terrifyingly scary red-painted demonic people, the other drum performers, who had finished and were headed to the bar. I couldn't believe how many people were out that Monday night though and appeared to be in it for the long haul - it was raining and I'd already exhausted my costume on Saturday, so it never occurred to me people would actually go out on Monday as well. Clearly I was mistaken. Very cool annual tradition to catch though.
Last Saturday was Bonfire Night. This annual celebration on Nov. 5th, where there are fireworks set off all around the UK, is in honor of Guy Fawkes. He was part of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 due to continuing intolerance for Catholicism under the British monarch. When you are plotting with 12 other people, however, make sure nobody rats you out by sending a letter directly to whom you are trying to blow up. Apparently, someone in the plot folded like a lawn chair and notified a member of the House of Lords that Nov. 5th was the day. Not only did Guy never get a chance to ignite the 36 barrels of gunpowder stored in the basement of Westminster, but the guards stormed in while he was down there, captured, tortured, and killed him for treason. Talk about a plan gone wrong. So on that Nov. 5th night in 1605, people around Britain lit bonfires to celebrate the safety of the King and the tradition continues today. We got to see the huge amount of fireworks set off in the soccer stadium from Holyrood Park, which sits at the base of the extinct volcano Arthur's Seat where people hike up with torches or flashlights and set off fireworks as well. That was cool to see from the ground - I'd be willing to put money on it that it was F.REE.ZING up there!
I hope you are doing great! It's quite unseasonably warm for Scotland, apparently, so we'll see how cold it starts to get here in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks for reading and take care!
Cheers,
Beth
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